Newt in the loot?

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson has discussed directing $20 million to an outside group backing Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign, multiple sources told POLITICO – a good sign for allies who have been pushing the former speaker’s longtime billionaire supporters to sign on.

But Adelson called POLITICO Thursday to challenge the characterization that he had committed $20 million.

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“I’ve made no commitment to anybody. Now, doesn’t mean I won’t in the future, but up ‘til now, no commitment has been made and no amount has been stated,” he said, refusing to answer questions about whether he’d met with representatives of the super PACs supporting Gingrich.

“I’m not telling you who I talked to,” he said, explaining that he “would prefer to stay under the radar,” despite his high-profile in the business world. “But when it comes to political issues, or my personal issues or my philanthropic issues, I only allow anything to be done, I never talk about what I’m going to do to anybody. All I just do is do.”

After leaving Congress, Gingrich cultivated a network of a few dozen uber-wealthy backers who poured tens of millions of dollars into a network of groups that helped him maintain a foothold in politics. Now, operatives supporting his presidential campaign are asking those same donors to write fat checks to a suite of new super PACs they hope can spend big on ads to offset Gingrich campaign fundraising that had lagged behind his rivals’.

Adelson is considered the prized get for pro-Gingrich groups.

Many major donors prefer to keep their activity low-profile, though federal rules require super PACs to disclose their donors in the coming weeks.

Sources with direct knowledge of the $20 million figure, who requested anonymity, told POLITICO that Adelson planned to cut a check to one of the PACs as soon as this week.

But Adelson said “if these people say they heard me say it, just tell them to call me. If they know me well enough to quote me, tell them to call me. I’m telling you it’s not true.”

A major contribution from Adelson would enable the recipient group to start airing ads in Iowa to counter a weeklong anti-Gingrich on-air assault that is already taking a toll on his front-runner status in the Hawkeye State, according to private and public polling.

Adelson and his wife Miriam Adelson each contributed the $2,500 maximum to Gingrich’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in August. But there weren’t many options for them and other wealthy donors looking to give more to help Gingrich through the summer, when his campaign was on life support.

That changed as Gingrich’s campaign started surging last month, prompting his allies to create new outside groups known as super PACs that can accept unlimited funds to air ads supporting him.

Perhaps the leading player in the pro-Gingrich super PAC space, Winning Our Future, was unveiled this week and is being headed by Becky Burkett, who was the lead fundraiser for Gingrich’s main political vehicle over the past few years, the fundraising juggernaut American Solutions for Winning the Future.

That group raised $54 million — including $7.7 million from Adelson — between its late 2006 creation and its collapse this year after Gingrich left it to run for president, according to Internal Revenue Service filings.